Montgomery County DA clears officers in fatal Pottstown shooting during standoff

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele has ruled that a member of the county’s SWAT team was justified in fatally shooting a Pottstown man who, armed with a stolen gun, barricaded himself inside his home last month after shooting a police officer in the shoulder and threatened to shoot others.

Andrew Jackson Ecker, 25, waged an hourslong standoff with police outside of his home on Winding Road on April 6, investigators said, forcing the closure of nearby streets and preventing some residents from returning to their homes.

During the encounter, Steele said, Ecker refused to surrender peacefully. A SWAT officer, whom Steele did not identify, shot Ecker as he walked near his front door.

After the shooting, officers found that Ecker was carrying a .40 caliber pistol that had been reported stolen from a car in Philadelphia in May 2019, Steele said.

Hours earlier, officers first encountered Ecker a few yards away from his home after he crashed his van into a parked car. As officers approached him, Steele said, they saw him reaching for a .22 caliber gun in his vehicle. (He was unable to legally possess a gun because of a conviction for illegally purchasing a gun with an obliterated serial number.)

Ecker ran from the officers and shot at them as they pursued him. One of his shots struck Pottstown Police Officer Caleb Whitney in his left shoulder, prompting officers from other, nearby departments to descend on the scene.

One of Ecker’s neighbors told The Inquirer that Ecker had visited her home on the day of the shooting to collect money from a repair job he had completed at their property. Ecker worked as a plumbing and HVAC technician for his father, Aram Ecker, a well-known plumbing contractor in the borough and member of the Pottstown Borough Authority.

At the time, she said, Ecker appeared to be intoxicated and had a handgun tucked into his waistband.

Steele said that the officers acted appropriately in their dealings with Ecker later in the day and that deadly force was justified.

“This was a dangerous situation that left one police officer shot and ended after a lengthy standoff,” he said. “Our investigation determined the facts of this case supported the use of deadly force by police officers.”